


Not A Fairy Tale

by kelex



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-26
Updated: 2013-12-26
Packaged: 2018-01-06 06:22:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1103464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelex/pseuds/kelex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life's not a fairy tale, and there's no such thing as a happy ending, even for the Doctor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not A Fairy Tale

Life isn't a fairy tale; happily ever after doesn't always exist.

His white charger is a blue police box with a lantern on top, and there aren't three good fairies. There's a lot of Evil Queens out in the universe, and there's no kindly king, but there is a loving mother.

There's him. There's her. And how she brought him back from the dead. And that's all. 

But that's enough.

\-----

Like all good stories, it starts simple. A touch, a clasp of her hand, and a word: "Run!"

A tingle ran up the Doctor's arm as soon as they touched. His hand flexed around hers, tightening around delicate human digits. A skipped beat in each heart, and his feet almost left the ground.

He wasn't going to let the Nestene Consciousness have Rose Tyler or this stupid little planet of hers. But he didn't have to worry; Rose Tyler saved everything herself. Him, that idiot boyfriend Ricky, herself, the planet.

And still she came with him. Every time he held out his hand, she took it. Trust, joy, later love, flowing like a river between the two of them. 

The Doctor was damaged, and he knew it. Rose knew it and she didn't care; she held out her hand and wrapped it around the Doctor's like a promise of safety and security. 

Of forgetfulness.

\-----

_"The world doesn't end if the Doctor dances."_

For all that he knew, it could have. With Rose in his arms, the whole universe could have collapsed around him without his notice. 

Rather, the entire universe, everything that mattered, was in his hands. Every sun spun in the strands of her hair, every star sparkled in her eyes, every planet lived and breathed in the rise and fall of her lungs. He was a Time Lord; Rose was the Lady. 

The Bad Wolf.

\-----

_"I want you safe, my Doctor."_

Exhilaration, for an instant--an eternity to a Time Lord--Bad Wolf saw things exactly as he did. Only a moment, a heartbeat of the universe, but she saw every single thing he saw in the exact way that he saw it. They were one, and it was wrong.  
So he killed the Bad Wolf. He kissed her, Bad Wolf, and put her to sleep forever to save Rose Tyler. He took the vortex into himself, purged her of everything that had made her like him, even the memories. But it wasn't her turn, you see. 

In this story, it's the daft old prince with the big ears who falls asleep after kissing the princess. 

\-----

_"Help me."_

All the screams of the Earth couldn't wake the Doctor. But all Rose had to do was whisper two words in his ear, and the Doctor woke like Sleepin g Beauty kissed by the prince. 

Destroyed a rogue Christmas tree and frightened off the roboform Santas, gave them the warning "pilot fish," vague, yes, but warning of the Sycorax none the less, and went comatose again because he was still sick, still regenerating.

The Doctor slept until Rose was in danger.

A new face, a new man, the Doctor awoke.

Held out his hand, and Rose took him home. 

To _her_ home, for Christmas supper and party hats from crackers, with Mum and Mickey the idiot.

For the second time, Rose saved her Doctor. And when he held out his hand again, she took it without hesitating. And in doing so, saved him again. From himself, from loneliness, from regret, from 2.47 billion dead children haunting him. 

And that should be the end of our story, shouldn't it, with the prince and the princess in their magic blue box for all time. Except it didn't end that way. 

A rip in the fabric of space and time let the goblins and the metal monsters in. The Doctor was brilliant, but not quite brilliant enough.

\-----

_"I'm burning up a star to say goodbye."_

A wall, as physically tangible as concrete and rebar. A wall, as intangible as void space and the vacuum that filled the Doctor's heart. 

Another universe, separate and safe. No Cybermen and no Daleks, because both were sucked into the void. No Doctor, because it was outside the Time Vortex. No way for the TARDIS to reach. 

Weeks of nothing until there was only one word-- _Rose._ In her sleep, haunting her dreams, always her Doctor calling her name. 

It led her all over the countryside, to Norway, to Dårlig Ulv-Stranden. It all came back to Bad Wolf; Bad Wolf Bay is the site of their final farewell. Because there is a tiny crack between the universes, and that's all the Doctor needs.

The TARDIS, the magic carriage among the stars of time and space, now circled one of them. A supernova, draining the energy all to say--

And the star died before the words could come. The tears came, but not the words.

And the Doctor was alone, again. 

\-----

You'd think that was the end, wouldn't you?

But imagine a coda for our fairy tale.

We find that the Doctor has, let's say, a brother. Identical brother, down to the DNA. And Rose found a way to come back. 

The Doctor gave a piece of the TARDIS to Rose and his twin; maybe that's a happy ending, isn't it?

Rose and the Doctor, in the TARDIS, just as it should be.

Except for _our_ Doctor.

You see, Rose got to spend the rest of her life with her Doctor.

But our Doctor, you see, he never got his Rose. Other Companions came and went, and so did regenerations. 

But no Rose.

Told you it wasn't a fairy tale.

\- End


End file.
